Fat girl living in a skinny world

Tweety from one of my longtime fora, GeekCulture, has started a new blog, American Fairy Tales. He only has one post so far, but more are promised. The concept is original: America lacks fairy tales like the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson. The story posted, about an ogre named Ormley, is cleverly written and contains just the right amount of descriptive phrases and humor. Unfortunately, the message of the story demonstrates the author’s wholehearted subscription to the popular media’s propaganda that fat and overweight are caused by eating fried, high-fat-content foods and that those foods, as well as being overweight or obese, leads to heart attacks and death.

So Rhohwyyn, what if the child was obviously over weight. Would you be supportive of unsolicited intervention then? Childhood obesity can be a serious health issue too.

Just curious.

Pdiff

I think it’s hard to know – for the untrained eye – when a child is unhealthily overweight. It’s normal for children to be “chubby.” In general, I don’t think it’s really something to be concerned about, at least not to the extent that it’s being freaked out about in Oz.

I have a feeling, too, that many, if not most, parents can see when their children are fat, just like most people know when they themselves are fat. Or do parents have blinders on when it comes to their own children? I doubt it, though, because how many of us heard from our parents – mothers, in particular – that we were too fat? Practically all of us. Maybe the solution is finding a way to speak positively and gently about fat and health, not tear down our children for things they can’t control?

Before all of you who know I am anti-diet-establishment gasp in shock, take a deep breath. It’s not for me.

A woman at church is on bedrest until she gives birth, and she’s on a low-sodium diet. I agreed to make a meal, but then I realized I have no idea what constitutes low sodium. The WW cookbook was the only one at the library’s book sale that included nutritional content for every recipe. I found some really good-looking recipes, and I might make some for us sometime.